Beijing time on March 11, in an NBA regular season game that ended today, the 76ers lost to the Nets 100-129, in this highly anticipated focus battle, James Harden, who had just been traded by the Nets to the 76ers, faced his old club for the first time, but failed to prove himself with an excellent performance, but because of his poor performance, he was criticized and ridiculed after the game.
Throughout the game, Harden started 29 minutes, 3 of 17, contributed 11 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals, including 3 of 7 three-pointers and 0-of-10 two-pointers. With this, Harden became the second player of the season to make 0-of-10 two-pointers in a single game, and the first was Westbrook. In other words, Harden and Westbrook have played two of the worst shooting games of the season.
If it's just an ordinary regular season game, Harden's poor play may not be too much of a concern, after all, it is normal for a player to have occasional playing aberrations in a season. But the opponent of the 76ers in this game is the Nets, one of the potential opponents for this season's Eastern Conference champions, and harden's first time facing the Nets after being traded. Whether from the team's or Harden's point of view, this is a game that cannot be lost, or even if it is lost, Harden cannot play so badly, because it will make people more and more convinced that Harden just can't fight a hard battle.
In fact, after playing in the first half, Harden made 3 of 15 in the half, 3 of 6 from three-point range, contributed 11 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals, which was already extremely inefficient. Due to Harden's downturn, the 76ers were hung by the Nets throughout the game, trailing by 21 points at halftime, and many NBA celebrities could not help but criticize Harden in the midfield.
NBA star Charles Barkley commented on Harden's performance in midfield. Buckley said, "I'm going to tell you what scares me right now... That's James Harden. The remarks were clearly full of sarcasm, and basketball commentator Kendrick Perkins also sneered: "James Harden went to a boxing match and found that he forgot to wear gloves!!! Don't mind me, go on..."
And NBA star Shaquille O'Neal's remarks after the game are more direct, he said that it has been a long time since he saw Harden play a good performance in the hard battle, which even makes people wonder whether Harden can not play a hard battle, O'Neal said bluntly: "The past 5, 6, 7 years, there may be 10 years, this is a knock on James (Harden). Will he stand up in the key game? You haven't stood up in a key game in a long time. This is a frightening situation. Because 76 people brought you here for a reason, we need you. When we get into grab seven, it's the key game and you need to stand up. However, you haven't stepped forward for a long, long time. ”
Barkley chimed in: "You don't need to play great, but you can't perform badly." Harden got that reputation and struggled with performances in all the key games. You can look back and see the fire war of that year. They were still ahead of the Warriors before Chris (Paul) was injured, and it was Paul who led the way. Harden is a fantastic player. But in the crucial moments, he always performed badly. You don't have to play very well, but you can't show a struggle, but tonight he is like that. ”
You'll find that before you know it, hardening has become the norm when he's playing hard, and even everyone is starting to realize it, does that affect the rest of the 76ers? Especially after today's game, whether there will be 76ers players who will start to wonder if they can really trust Harden in the playoffs, after all, harden has never really proved himself in the playoffs in the past seasons.
Previously, some people compared the combination of Harden and Embiid to the new OK combination, but in O'Neill's view, they are clearly not qualified, O'Neal said on the show: "The combination of me and Kobe Bryant has been dominant for 8 years. I wouldn't call them that, they're still far behind. Stop saying that. Now it seems that O'Neal is right, before Harden and Embiid won the championship, they were not enough to compete with the OK combination.